2021 Foradori Vigneto ‘Sgarzon’ Teroldego Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

100% Teroldego. Local dialect for “vine shoot”, “Sgarzon” is a cooler, sandier 2.5 hectares within the whole Foradori vineyard around the winery on the Campo Rotaliano plateau in the foothills of the Dolomites. Elisabetta planted the vines in guyot from massale cuttings in 1984. The farming is certified-biodynamic and the harvest is by hand. The bunches are destemmed, with the grapes going directly into clay amphorae (tinajasfrom J. Padilla in Spain) for an open-top, spontaneous fermentation without sulfur; the vessels are then closedfor 6-8 months of maceration. The wine is bottled without fining or flitering and with its only small dose of sulfur. Sgarzon and its identically made companion wine, Morei (from a warmer, stonier site nearby) develop more quickly in clay than the foudre-aged Foradori and Granato and are thus released earlier.

-Importer’s note